Less Than Harvey’s Best Still Qualifies as Strong, if Futile

Matt Harvey, who gave up seven hits, was still throwing 96-mile-per-hour fastballs in the sixth inning.Credit
Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

MIAMI — Before the right-hander Matt Harvey took the mound Monday for his sixth start of the season, he kept to himself in the visitors’ clubhouse at Marlins Park. He reclined on a big leather chair, tapped his iPad and seemed not even remotely interested in making small talk with his Mets teammates.

“It’s the way he is,” Manager Terry Collins said. “He’s one of those guys where, on the day he pitches, he’s really not somebody you want to hang out with.”

This is the way that Harvey prepares himself, by being, according to Collins, a bit of a grouch. His intensity has been vital for the Mets, who would be in a heap of trouble without him. And on a night when Harvey lacked his best stuff, he still found enough resolve to give his team a chance.

The Mets wasted it in a 4-3 loss to the Marlins in 15 innings, as both teams reduced the art of hitting to a horror film.

After exhausting his bullpen, Collins called on Shaun Marcum as a late emergency reliever. Marcum had started on Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies, and he seemed to run out of gas against the Marlins. After Rob Brantly tied the game with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the 15th, Nick Green hit a sacrifice fly, driving in Justin Ruggiano for the winning run.

The Mets had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the inning when Ruben Tejada scored Lucas Duda on an infield single. But aside from that sequence and John Buck’s early two-run homer, the Mets’ offense was anemic. They were 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position.

Harvey, who pitched five and a third innings, did not figure in the decision.

Coming off four straight losses and a 3-6 homestand, the Mets sorely needed a victory, one they hoped to earn without David Wright, who sat out the first 12 innings with what he described as spasms and stiffness in his neck. He pinch-hit in the 13th inning and struck out.

In the absence of Wright, the onus fell on Harvey even more than usual. It is a credit to the right-hander that 16 starts into his career, his outing against the Marlins was not considered vintage Harvey. He gave up seven hits, and he labored as much as anything. But he was still throwing 96-mile-per-hour fastballs in the sixth inning, and 78 of his career-high 121 pitches were strikes. He allowed one run, his earned run average swelling to 1.56 from 1.54.

His starts have become must-see TV for baseball fans, and especially for those who played a role in his development. Scott Forbes, the pitching coach at North Carolina, where Harvey played for three seasons, was among them Monday night.

In studying the pitcher’s emergence, Forbes cited the work that Harvey did before his junior season at U.N.C. Bill Caudill, Harvey’s adviser and a former major league pitcher, told him that he needed a fourth pitch — a slider — to become a top-shelf prospect. Harvey expressed reservations, Forbes said. Sliders can put undue stress on a throwing elbow. Harvey went to great lengths to make sure he learned how to throw it correctly.

“He kept working on it, and by the time the season rolled around, it was a pitch that he could consistently throw for a strike,” Forbes said in a telephone interview. “It looks like a fastball to right-handed hitters, but it has all that late action.”

On Monday, the pitch was on full display — and Harvey needed it. In the second inning, with two outs and runners at first and second, he found himself trudging through some rare early adversity. Jose Fernandez, the opposing pitcher, worked a full count before Harvey unleashed a 91-m.p.h. slider that dipped like a windblown leaf. Fernandez flailed away for strike three, ending the threat.

Entering the game, Harvey was throwing his slider 19.1 percent of the time, according to FanGraphs.com. Though he was leaning on his heat-seeking fastball (58.2 percent) as well as his slider, he had the luxury of mixing in changeups (11.6 percent) and curveballs (11.2 percent).

“I think you see a lot of guys come up with a great fastball, but if they can’t throw something else for a strike that night, they’re in trouble,” Mets reliever Scott Atchison said. “Matt has the ability to command his other pitches. If it takes him a few innings to find his fastball, he has something else to get him by.”

The veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who began his career as a starter, said it was highly unusual for a pitcher so young to be so complete. “You might be polished with two pitches, maybe three,” he said. “But not four. Definitely not four.”

Before the game, Harvey isolated himself in the clubhouse. His teammates cited the quiet intensity that always seemed to be at work when he prepared himself. Disrupting his pregame routine comes with risks. The Mets want him — no, need him — to do his best work.

Sometimes, even that is not enough.

A version of this article appears in print on April 30, 2013, on page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Less Than Harvey’s Best Still Qualifies as Strong. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe